Ofgem has recommended energy providers stop imposing prepayment meters into the homes of some customers.
An investigation revealed that debt collectors had forcibly entered houses to install prepayment meters, despite rules that previously specified they should not be placed in the homes of vulnerable customers.
Ofgem requested that suppliers halt the practice temporarily in February. However, the decision to do so is voluntary, with no legal requirement.
Prepayment-meter regulations have recently been updated after consultation with the Government, stakeholders, and industry.
What are the new prepayment meter guidelines?
According to new regulations, energy companies should make at least 10 attempts to get in touch with a customer and perform a "site welfare visit" before they can obstructively install a prepayment meter.
To ensure that the latest code of practice from energy regulator Ofgem is being followed, employees will now be required to wear cameras.
Additionally, forced installations should not be performed in the homes of elderly individuals who are 85 years of age or older and who do not have a carer.
People with illnesses, such as emphysema and sickle-cell disease who would be at risk from a cold home as well as those who need constant energy for medical equipment, will also be safeguarded.
Why are the new prepayment guidelines being criticised?
The new code has come under criticism for allegedly still failing to safeguard some vulnerable individuals and for not yet having legal force.
Prepayment meters are still permitted to be installed in some households where the occupants have disabilities, according to the disability equality charity Scope.
A spokesperson told Sky News: “We want to see the forced installation of meters and remote switching banned outright for disabled people.”
The fact that the change is voluntary, according to End Fuel Poverty Coalition’s spokesperson, “undermines its objective” and “simply does not go far enough”.
“There are really vulnerable groups which have been omitted from its full protection and we have serious concerns about how it will be implemented, such as how people will prove their medical conditions without being humiliated by an energy firm health inspection,” explains the spokesperson.
“This was the Government’s opportunity to take meaningful action and introduce targeted debt relief for those most in need. It has failed to do so and seems to have given in to energy industry demands to let them go back to the bad old days of forcing prepayment meters onto customers in distress.
“The plans also fail to deal with the elephant in the room — the growing household energy-debt mountain. According to figures from the Warm This Winter campaign, 29 per cent of the population is in debt to their energy firm.”
